MASS EFFECT ISN'T DEAD [BioFan Video]

Yeah, it was an EA cash grab...they're not concerned with the legacy of a game as long as it can fill a Q4 revenue gap, which it did. BioWare gets to pick up the pieces, and EA moves on to Maddon 18 and Battlefield DLC.

Which sucks. 

already done 3 PTs and plan on doing two more.

Exact same can be said for the defenders. (Or to be more precise, unrelenting & closed-minded defenders.) The mistake some are making on both sides is they automatically allocate them to the very extreme of the "side" they take, when in reality they are far nearer to the middle.

Vast majority I've seen post on this thread giving a negative view, have either merely been indifferent to the game, or happy to acknowledge it's below Bioware's usual standard, but can enjoy playing it for the most part anyway.

I'm not sure "cash grab" is quite the right term for refusing to offer a second extension to a project that had already had a lot of time and a large budget.

They do like money despite many of the people working for well...that studio in particular being of a particular brand of erm...politics to say the absolute least, but I assume they do like their content selling and therefore ensuring they get paid. So I can't see them pulling the plug unless if it was a flop that they didn't expect to move any amount of content.

Not really "blaming" anyone.

I liked the game, but I could easily see why some people had issues with it.

My problem is I tend to judge products by their "potential" instead of the actual execution. For example, I loved "Star Trek: Voyager," but most Trekkies hated it. Now, with the VOY novels, my prediction of the show having the ability to tell great stories has come true. Alas, MEA won't have that chance.

I have to disagree. I enjoy ME:A
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Well me not liking it and you liking it really doesnt matter in relation to tje greater plan.

I am sure that EA someway and somehow has a way to see how many people actually completed the game, how many people completes multiple playthroughs, how often people come back to play, and the total number who still plays now compared to August, compares to July, compared to June etc....

Based on that, EA has a solid understanding of how "popular" and active MEA is.

I liked Andromeda overall. It's a shame that support was cut just past its infancy and we'll never get the full story in game. For them to resolve an important plot point in a fuckin' NOVEL is just laughable. However I'd rather they keep in Andromeda for the time being. What needs to change is presentation. Not just our immediate setting but the npcs and main characters alike. They need depth, unique qualities and something about them to make us want to be like them. ME2 had a YUGE cast yet everyone was unique with Jacob being the consensus "plain" guy but even he had an edge and an interesting backstory as a fellow Alliance soldier who's now working for a rogue organization yet still maintains a strong enough moral center to question everything about Cerberus and TIM himself. In MEA we get a socially inept asari, an anti-turian, an old badass krogan, an alien whose people are strongly relevant to much of the plot, a human dork, and a female human LT. Sound familiar?

Next, there's the voice acting and actual actions. Most NPCs are decent enough. But lisping krogan and salarians kill immersion and any attempt to make them seem important or influential. Liam is another who strikes a strong negative chord with me. While his loyalty mission is full of laughs and he has his moments, he's just another example of an immersion breaking joke of a character. Some simpleton that managed to become a cop and a quasi-SWAT that has no grit whatsoever? It's the equivalent of Cedric the Entertainer being a CIA assassin. Doesn't work on any level and the character is DOA. The Archon is constantly spoken upon with fear and hatred yet he does very little. We're given almost no reason to even take the guy seriously because its all tell and no show. He doesn't even make an example out of his Lieutenants to show he's a guy not to take lightly. This was a problem with nearly the entire game. Nothing is taken seriously and its all a joke. It was far too lighthearted with zero consequences. Most of all, the biggest offender was the way the krogan are. Suddenly there are krogan botanists who can't fight? Krogan with lightly toned voices? Short and/or the same height as humans? Why do they all act like every other race when their identity was established in the MET?

Then there's the character appearances. Ignoring the obvious botch with the asari clones I can buy krogan and salarians having similar faces, but not the same ones exactly. I can buy turians being made much sleeker in appearance as it fits their intended design a bit better. What I can't buy is my famale human protag having extremely odd facial dimensions or being made to look unspectacular on purpose. Not only is Sara terribly modeled facially with regard to expressions but also Peebee too. Terrible looking asari with a fat face, its no wonder those Shrek memes were made. Not much tweaking needed. The angara were a nice design, though I'd prefer they had unique faces. Lastly, can we get another species with hair and bipedal legs like humans and asari? Not every species should fit the opposite physical mold.

What I want out of the ME future is a return to the atmosphere of ME2 with bits of ME1 mixed in. The gameplay in MEA was fine though rather than everyone having jetpacks there should be more unique ways of getting around. Lets say Salarians or krogan just jump? The planets should also be far busier with bigger hubs and towns. Kadara had potential but felt extremely small. Veold would have worked with less arctic wasteland. Harvarl could have benefitted greatly with more regions and Aya needed to be as big as ME1 citadel at minimum. The next game needs to take itself seriously again and have more inspired characters design to take advantage of this generation's graphical power. Lets have more facial variety and consistency to the trilogy and less voice actors who sound like Little Nicky. Give us the races that got us to invest into this series and not odd things disguised as asari, turians, salarians, and humans. If krogan can beat the genophage then quarians can outgrow the damn suits, or at the very least, the masks. Finally, make the kett dangerous and multilayered. Andromeda can be great if it utilizes the tools that brought Mass Effect to the dance.

What next? Krogan spouting poetry? Madness.